Tuesday, March 7, 2017

THE DEATH OF POLITICS

THE DEATH OF POLITICS

Last week I
tuned into Trump’s speech and some of the following commentary. I had an uneasy
feeling—something was wrong. I’ve been writing, for some time, about the
corruption of special interest money (with little to show for it), but this was
something else. Something else is on display in our discourse and media
frenzy—despair perhaps. Finally, it hit me: politics is dead.

Nothing can
happen, no problems solved, no reforms implemented. Politics is no more
meaningful in our lives than a professional sports league—fun to watch and root
for a team, but, win or lose, our lives go on unaffected. We get to choose
left, or right—liberal or conservative, but neither effects an improvement. Our
team can win, but our debt continues to spiral out of control while other huge
problems continue to fester. Meanwhile, we’ve suffered a de facto
reorganization of our government; congress no longer governs; they’re too busy
with the perpetual campaign and money raising. Regulators and courts have
filled in the gap.

Whichever
party is in charge will continue to cope with the hot issues thrown up by the
opposition and media while ‘kicking the can down the road’ on the systemic
problems that will bring us down. If you still believe that voting for the
lesser of two evils will eventually fix things, you haven’t been paying attention.

How does it
end? Who knows? Maybe we’ll be forced to restore our democracy.